Saturday 12/29/18

This morning, I woke up slightly tired because of the trip yesterday. The MacBook Pro that my dad had ordered had come but my mom wasn't home to sign it. I was sleeping at the beginning of the day and I even skipped breakfast. At around 9:00, my dad said that there was a little sticker telling us that we could go pick up the MacBook at a FedEx nearby. We went there and we picked up the package. I was giddy the entire ride home because I was excited to unbox the MacBook. I made sure that I would remember this. It may not seem like a big deal, but weirdly enough, for me, getting a MacBook (even if I have to share), is very cool. I asked my sister to film my dad and me opening the package, and she did. First, I opened the big box it was in. Then, I took out some bubble wrap and the majestic MacBook box was there, in front of my eyes! My dad helped me open it, and I took the MacBook Pro out of the packaging. It was so nice and aesthetically pleasing just to look at. I took off the plastic on it, and I looked around in the packaging. It was all so cool. I tested it out, and the touch bar was so cool. The keyboard was even much quieter than the other MacBooks at home. It was lunchtime, and I ate some yummy food made by my grandma. After lunch, we decided to go to that super fun park that my sister loved to talk about. We went with the whole family, excluding my grandpa because he went somewhere else already. When we got to the park, it was really fun, and I was surprised because I wasn't expecting that. We played for around an hour, and then we went home. My mom was talking about ice cream, and I said there was ice cream in the freezer, so she got all pumped up and wanted to go home. My brother got home first and he ate the first popsicle. Then I got home and waited for my sister to get home. When my sister got home, my mom was right behind her and we all got popsicles and we were happy. I used the new MacBook for a while and played typing games because I was so interested in the keyboard. It feels so satisfying just typing on it right now, it also sounds very cool compared to other loud keyboards. My dad suggested we go shopping, and we did. We went to Marshalls first to get my mom a new suitcase. We got one, and we also got popsockets for the new phones and some clothing. We then went into Albertsons for some medicine and food. It was dinner time when I got home. At 7 I went to piano class and got home at 9:30. My dad was giving my brothers haircuts, so he also got one. I helped him. Then I started writing my blog posts. I've been writing my blog posts for about an hour now. I like summarizing what happened since it was all so fun. Now I'm going to go to sleep because it's 11:08 P.M. and that is very late.

Wednesday 12/26/18 ~ Friday 12/28/18 - The Trip to Las Vegas

Wednesday (12/26). It was very crazy in the house because we were all getting ready to leave and finalizing our luggage. At around 9:00 A.M., we left the house for a long drive. It was supposed to be 5 hours, it ended up taking us 8 hours. Our cousins from Michigan had been on vacation since the beginning of winter break, they arrived at Las Vegas at around 12:00 P.M., so they were very bored waiting for us, at least that's what they said. We drove a very long time and for lunch we had Chipotle. At 5:00 P.M. we finally arrived at a hotel called Excalibur. It was a castle-shaped hotel, and it was probably based on King Arthur's sword Excalibur, and King Arthur was from Camelot and he lived in a fine castle. My uncle, who was my dad's brother, came to pick us up. He helped us get our luggage to his room. My dad had to find a parking space, so he came after us. We knocked on the door to our cousin's room, and they were so happy to see us, and we were also very happy. We talked about things, and also played on electronics. My dad found a parking space and he came up to the room. We decided to eat at a Chinese restaurant for dinner. I have two cousins, one is named JieMing and the other is named Yunjia. I called JieMing just Ming and Yunjia, well Yunjia. We ate there, and Yunjia didn't like the food, and the customer service was really bad. The food was pretty good though. I went to sleep at 11:00 and the next morning I woke up at around 7 A.M. It was Thursday (12/27). First, we went to a dim sum restaurant where they served your food really quickly, and the food was decent. After that, we explored the Las Vegas strip. We first went to Bellagio, and we saw the flower garden with cute polar bears that had Coca-Cola scarves. The polar bears were made out of flowers which were really cool. We took some pictures and explored more. It was a lot of walking, my mi-band even said that I had gotten around 20,000 steps that day. It was tiring. In Michigan, there are no YogurtLands, but my cousins had come to California in the summer and we told them about YogurtLand after we had eaten at a place with frozen yogurt. Ming accidentally called it YogurtLunch so we made a joke about eating "YogurtLunch" for land, but it's supposed to be eating YogurtLand for lunch. We actually did find a frozen yogurt store, and I was being greedy and got 20 ounces of toppings and yogurt. It was pretty expensive, but it was lunch. I played the sentence game with my brother, Benlin, and Ming. It's where someone starts a random sentence, and the last word of the sentence is used to make another sentence. It goes on and on until someone cannot think of a sentence. It was really fun and it lasted for around 30 minutes while we were walking. We also played the word game where you say a word, and the next person uses the last letter of the word before. That last letter had to be used to make a real word starting with that letter. My sister and Yunjia were also having fun talking. I wasn't feeling sick, anymore but my sister still was, sadly. We went back to the hotel so my sister could sleep. I went to my cousins' room so I could play with them. I drew some pictures with Yunjia, while Benlin played with Ming. We got bored so Yunjia brought her iPad to my room and we played together. It was time for dinner before we knew it. We couldn't find any place without super long lines, we had to look for 1 whole hour. We finally came across a place called Lee's Sandwiches, which was pretty good. My stomach hurt so I went to the restroom, and I came out just in time to order food. I just got cup noodles because I wasn't in the mood for sandwiches. My sister ordered chicken nuggets and a watermelon smoothie with boba. I tried it and it was pretty good, except for the fact that it tasted completely artificial. After dinner, we went to a hotel called The Mirage to watch a fake volcano erupt. It started at 9:00 P.M., and I was tired but I was really looking forward to it. My cousins, my siblings, and I were all sad that we almost had to leave Las Vegas. Time had passed by so quickly. Music started playing and it was really cool and intense. I filmed the entire "eruption". First, water sprayed out in large quantities with lights to make it more reddish to look like fire. Real fire was also sprayed and it looked like the fire was going to hit the trees near it. When everyone thought it was finished, more fire came and there was a lot. Then it was over, and I was so sad that my cousins were leaving immediately the next day. I went to sleep at around 11:00 again. The next morning, which was Friday (12/28), I went up to my cousins' room and they didn't even know that they would have to leave at 8:00. My dad did, and he told me so I told them. We talked a little and they went to my room to play. Then my uncle came to take my cousins, and they were heading to Antelope Canyon. I was so sad that they were leaving and we couldn't go with them. After they left, my family and I went to a place near Lee's Sandwiches to eat. I wanted to go to Lee's Sandwiches to get a sandwich, but my dad saw a place near it which was Vietnamese food. My brother still went to Lee's Sandwiches and he got a Breakfast Sandwich. My sister got a watermelon smoothie and chicken nuggets while I just got a large milk tea with boba. It tasted really good, and I went back to the Vietnamese food restaurant to order real food. I got noodles with soup and beef. I also ordered egg rolls which tasted amazing. After the food was finished, we went to a nearby 99 Ranch in Chinatown of Las Vegas. We shopped for snacks because my dad said that we would be going to a place only 20 minutes out of Las Vegas called Red Rock to hike and take pictures. I bought some snacks, we left Las Vegas, and we arrived at Red Rock. The first stop was the big rock with the words of the place we were at up front. It was so cold, I forgot to mention this but, it was super cold all the time during Las Vegas. We went to a trail which was really fun. My dad didn't have the proper shoes, but I climbed up with my brother and grandma. They didn't wait for me, so I didn't know the way up. My dad helped me and then I got up. The hiking trail included parts where you could get up onto the rocks that other people were on too. It was really fun climbing up the rocks, but it was scary at times too because I thought I would fall. After that, there was another little stopping area with a single tree. It was just cold, nothing fun. There was another stop where other people were climbing up rocks, so I did too and I took pictures. After that, there was a trail where you could just explore the beauty of the place. My sister, my dad, and I went on a hiking trail there. Then we headed home at around 2:00 We skipped lunch and just ate snacks but for dinner, we ate at this place called Oggi's with Italian food. Their food was pretty good. We arrived home at around 10:40. I helped get everything out of the car and I got my sister's things too since she was not feeling well. The trip to Las Vegas was really fun.

Monday 12/24/18 and Tuesday 12/24/18 - Christmas was fun! Or not...

On Monday (12/24), I woke up and I was feeling sick. I didn't feel like doing anything. I just went downstairs to eat breakfast and for the rest of the day, I was using electronics. I ate lunch, and then I just read some more Webtoons. I wasn't feeling for good so I went to sleep for about 50 minutes and I had a weird dream where some weird person was running at full speed with a shopping cart at me, I woke up in a start. Then I managed to go back to sleep. After that, I ate dinner with the rest of my family. The next day, which was a Tuesday (12/25), I did basically the same thing. I was feeling much better after being sick but I got my sister a little sick because we share a room. The only thing different was that after lunch, my parents, my little brother, and my sister went out to go on a walk. My older brother had gone out by himself with a bike but he came back only ten minutes after the rest of my family left. I stayed home, saying I was still feeling bad, it was kind of an excuse though. My sister came home screaming about how fun the park that they went to was. It was newly built, and I had never gone there before. It seemed fun hearing about the park. I was excited because the next day I knew I was going to Las Vegas with my dad, my brother, my sister, and my grandparents. I almost forgot to mention that it was Christmas. I got 20 dollars for Christmas (yay! <-- that was sarcasm). My dad had ordered a MacBook Pro for me to share with him, so I was excited for it to be shipped to our house.

Saturday 12/22/18 and Sunday 12/23/18 - Whole Family Trips

On Saturday (12/22), I woke up in the morning and I realized that it was my parents’ birthday. Both my mom and my dad’s. I gave them my handmade presents, but sadly I didn’t have the time to buy them something nice from the store. They both still liked their birthday presents though. We were going to take pictures like we always do each year. We were all getting ready, and we drove there and took pictures. Then we are at a nice Chinese restaurant. It was really good, and I enjoyed it but we were all too full for dessert. There were lamb kabobs, fried rice, and other assortments of meat or vegetables. There was this bok choy soup with tofu that tasted really good. Then, we left and went home. I then went to Costco with my dad, and we bought some snacks and other things. After that, we went home for dinner. After dinner, my dad said that we might be going on a road trip the next day even though we hadn’t started planning so I packed my clothes for 7 days. I slept at around 10:30 that day, and I woke up around 5:30 the next day. Sunday (12/23): At the time before lunch,  my dad found 3 old phones and he decided to give them to my sister and me. Even though I can’t really do anything on the phone it still makes me happy. Then, we all ate lunch. My mom suggested driving 1 hour to go to this place called Mission Inn where "over one million lights" light up. So we went there and I read Webtoons on the car. When we got there, there was a weird smell and I was already feeling slightly sick, I was coughing, which made my throat hurt, and I had a stuffy nose, I also had a headache. We walked to Mission Inn, but it was too early for the light show so we went to shopping malls around there and bought some food. We ate some snacks and then at around 5 P.M., the light show started. I took pictures and it was really pretty. The lights were tied around the building and there were other things like trees wrapped with lights. Then, we walked to the car and headed to another city to eat dinner. We chose an Italian restaurant, but they didn’t serve soup so my dad and I went to the store next door to buy some miso soup. Then, we went back into the Italian restaurant just in time to order. I ordered an Alfredo that was pretty good. Then we finished eating and I was coughing a lot, the soup thankfully helped my sore throat. We all got into the car and drove back home. It was a really fun trip but right now I am still coughing with a stuffy nose and headache,

Friday 12/21/18

This morning, I woke up at around 6:10 A.M. to go downstairs and play the piano. The drowsiness was getting to me, but I wanted to cross something off of my to-do-list and just get 20 minutes of piano done. Then, I ate breakfast. It wasn't much, but it was enough because I knew there was going to be snacks at the class party. My dad dropped my sister and me off at school. I walked down to the back gate with my friend. Then, I went into the classroom with my stuffed animal and I set it down. All the tables were moved out of the way. My friends had all set up their mats of blankets on the floor, but I didn't bring one so my friend let me share with her. Only 10 minutes after I got to school, our teacher told us that we were going to go caroling in the multipurpose room. Everyone in my class was really excited. We went into the multipurpose room and sang Christmas carols, it was really fun. Then, for around 2 minutes or so we stayed in the classroom. But then we had to rush out to P.E. I ran the lap and then went onto my number. We stretched for about 10 minutes then we played dodgeball for around 20 minutes. Everyone went to wash their hands in the bathroom. Then we all went back into the classroom. We were called out in number order for snacks. I got strawberries, a bagel with cream cheese, and a cookie. Then I went back into the classroom and sat down on my friend's blanket. We watched an animated movie called A Christmas Carol, it was from 2009. It was kind of creepy there were ghosts and other things chasing the main character. But of course, there was a happy ending and we were all satisfied. During the movie, we also got hot chocolate and we stayed in for recess to finish the movie. Then we had a vocabulary test, luckily it was easy. After that, there were some announcements made and we watched someone's Egypt Project. I didn't watch the first part of the Egypt Project because I was helping cut out numbers for the game White Elephant. Then everyone drew numbers and then we went straight to music class. After music class was over, we went to lunch. Everyone stayed inside to eat because we were going to be playing White Elephant during lunch recess. After eating, we started White Elephant. The person who drew number 1 would go pick one of the wrapped gifts up front and unwrap it or take it out of the bag in front of everyone. They would show everyone what they got and then the person who drew number 2 would get up and either steal what number 1 got or grab another gift. I was number 7, and I stole a gift that had already been stolen once before me. So once I stole it, it was locked. I got a Pusheen stuffed animal and a game called Werewolf. When we finished White Elephant, there were only 10 minutes until school was over. We cleaned up and everyone said goodbye to each other. For me, it was more of a bittersweet moment because I was sad that I was leaving school for 2 weeks but I wasn't at the same time. Most of the time, if I'm not on vacation, being at home is really boring. But when I'm at school it's fun, but of course, I still wanted to go on break. Then, I went home and did what I normally did.

Thursday 12/20/18

Today, I woke up and I went to school. We started the day off with a math test, and we had all the desks and tables and chairs moved to the side. After an hour, we worked on our Egypt Project. Then we went to recess. We did some normal class stuff, but we also talked about what we were going to be doing for our Christmas class party the next day. Then we did more normal class stuff. I stayed in for lunch to work on my math calendar with my friend, and we got it done! Then after lunch, we started some social studies and studied some vocabulary. Then, I went to a meeting for something called junior coaches. We talked about some things, and we talked about how capture the flag was banned. They said that they were bringing capture the flag back which made everyone excited. Finally, it was the end of the school day and I rushed into the classroom to see people taking a class photo, so I rushed up front. Then my friend and I told everyone that they were bringing capture the flag back. Everyone was super happy! Then I went through the back gate with my friends and walked to the car. We talked about what we were going to be doing for White Elephant, which is a sort of gift exchange. Then I went home and did my homework.

Summary of the Week before Winter Break

On Monday, I went to school and we practiced for caroling. We were going to go to a retirement home and sing Christmas carols for them. The rest of the day was pretty normal. On Tuesday, we did a small practice and we walked to the retirement home. We got to skip school yay! We were there for about 50 minutes in the beginning doing practically nothing, and then we went in for about 30 minutes to sing for the elderlies and to interact. Then we had juice and walked back. We got to this huge park and ate cookies and candy canes, then we walked back to school and the rest of school was pretty normal. Today was a Wednesday, and we did the normal things. Then before lunch we got to set up our tables and change into elegant clothing. We were preparing for our elegant luncheon where people bring in food, drinks, decorations, and other stuff. There were 4 teams and each team had a different table. My team’s theme was Japanese. We brought Japanese food and decorations, we also tried to wear clothes close enough to Japanese clothing. There were judges looking to see which tables were most elegant. The winning team gets prizes. Hopefully we can win. Tomorrow, we will be taking our math test, and everything else will be close to normal. On Friday we will be doing a white elephant, and watch a movie with snacks. Then it’s finally winter break, I really feel like time is passing by so fast. Oh well, merry Christmas!

My New Schedule

For Christmas, I want to get a MacBook. To do this, I have to prove myself as "responsible". So I wake up in the morning everyday to play 20 minutes of piano, and then I do what in have to do and go to school. When I come back, I do my homework and then play another 20 minutes of piano. Then I do some studying, or extra curricular homework. I forgot to put it in my schedule, but I have to write blog every single day. I also have to do 40 minutes of math everyday. There isn’t much else to say. Oh! Every day I can designate 30 minutes or less for games or YouTube. Then I have to go back to doing normal things. I obviously can’t follow my schedule with exact times, but I will be close enough.